


light, darkness, a balance

by Anonymous



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fix-It, Reunions, Rey Nobody, Spoilers, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, big fat middle fingers out to jj, i made myself cry writing this so you know how it is, like big time folks, me trying to wrestle this plot to work? more likely than u think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21896098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Rey's quest to find her true identity leads to her encountering Kylo Ren on a distant planet, while looking for something else entirely.[rise of skywalker spoilers]
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 10
Kudos: 48
Collections: Anonymous, TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *waves hand at the movie* so that was... a thing. I saw it once, premiere night, well aware of any and all spoilers.  
> this is from memory with some help from wookipeedia so like, dont @ me about lines being off, its on purpose anyway.  
> this is my version of events. because fuck that noisy mess. lmao.  
> cheers.

It’s more than a feeling, an instinct, it’s what leads Kylo to Pasaana, following Rey after having her necklace analyzed. 

The closest thing he can compare it to is cheating, but since she’s able to block him from seeing her surroundings, it’s the only thing he _can_ do to have any chance of guessing where in the galaxy she is. Skimming close to the desert’s sand as he dares, that’s when he looks across the horizon, and sees the slash of blue appearing from nothingness. 

Bleeding into the orange crimson sunset, it’s Rey, waiting for him, no, she’s running _at_ him. Kylo flinches instinctively, but doesn’t swerve, doesn’t turn, if anything, he’s stubbornly keeping course, waiting for her to blink. 

But of course, she doesn’t. That tempered rage that he admires so much in her, her inner darkness, try as she might to deny it, rears it’s wickedly beautiful head, and she jumps over his ship, slicing neatly through one of his wings. 

Kylo has a split second of realization, before the stabilizers fail and he’s surrounded by chaos. Not his first crash landing, nor will it be his last, he suspects, but when he climbs out of the ruined ship, he straightens his spine and throws his shoulders back, setting his jaw, striding out to meet her, like he knows she wants. All she ever wants to do is fight him. Kylo wishes he could blame her, but the truth is, he has orders to stop her, to get rid of her friends, to quash this little rebellion and end the resistance before there’s any real further bloodshed. Palpatine has hundreds of planet destroyers lurking in wait, and Kylo knows the former Emperor will not hesitate to use them as a veritable fist to crush all who rise up against him. Rey doesn’t know how dangerous she is, why she is even a threat to Palpatine, but Kylo needs to tell her. He needs to be given the chance to speak. Instead, he draws his saber, because she’s already running at him. 

A lone shout echoes across the canyon. “Rey!” Kylo looks, because whoever is calling to her has made her stop. 

Saber raised, she turns, lifting her other hand to her face, blocking the setting sun out to see better. Kylo pauses too. 

He will not strike at her when she’s distracted. Harming her is the last thing he wants to do. “They took Chewie!”

It’s Dameron. Kylo’s blood boils and freezes all within a handful of seconds. _Chewie..._ is with her and her friends?

Uncle Chewie? Kylo has had no idea. He thought Chewie would be with his mother, wherever the resistance has hidden their base camp. He lifts his gaze to the sky, the scream of an engine cuts through the sudden silence, and Kylo knows he did _not_ give that order. Her friends were to be captured together, alive, or not at all. His knights have disobeyed him. 

“Stay back from me!” Rey screams at him, and Kylo watches in shock as she lifts a hand to the ship, wrestling with the Force, bending it to her will to halt the progress out of the atmosphere. His jaw tightens, and he knows he cannot let her succeed. Palpatine will _know_. Kylo’s hand rises in opposition, and he shoves at the ship, trying to give them a push they need to get out of Rey’s grasp. “No!” She snarls at him, her expression as fierce as it was in the throne room, so many long months ago, back when they were fighting on the same side, even if for a brief moment. Together, they grapple. 

The Force resonates between them, just as when they wrestled for the saber, this time, however, Rey wins, and Kylo tastes blood in his mouth, as he smells ozone, the instant before lightning erupts from her fingertips, and the ship splits in two.

It collapses to the ground a few hundred feet away, bursting into flames. Kylo feels a hollow emptiness settle into his chest. _Uncle Chewie._ Rey screams again, this time her face twists in anguish. “CHEWIE!”

“Rey we have to go!” Dameron shouts to her, making Kylo’s gaze leave Rey in favor of glaring across the sands at him. 

“This isn’t over, you monster.” Rey says, before taking off running. Kylo stays where he is, the flames of his smoldering ship warming his back. He lets her go, because he has to. The Force wills it, whispering to him, _all is not as it seems._

Kylo senses another ship, already in orbit. _Chewie_ is alive. He sags in relief, and sets his jaw. 

His knights have ensured Rey and her friends will come seeking revenge, and more than that, the sith dagger. 

Kylo wipes his hand over his face, his glove coming away dirty with grime and ash, wet with tears. 

Snoke’s words hiss in the back of his mind, _‘Too much of your fathers heart in you,’_ and he shivers, for once, he’s finally well aware of who has always been behind that voice in his head. Palpatine. A tie fighter screams in the distance. 

Kylo puts his saber away, summoning the Wayfinder from his smoking ship. Rey is right. This isn’t over.

* * *

The relief of knowing Chewie is alive and well is replaced by a dread slowly seeping in, which only intensifies as Poe and Finn leave her, albeit reluctantly, to go find him, while Rey goes in search of the dagger. It leads her to a stark white and black room, which almost tastes like _him_ . Rey swallows thickly, and stalks further into the room. This is very bad, because if he senses her, if he opens the bond… she squeezes her eyes shut, and tries to relax her breathing, focusing like mediating, she hopes the barriers in her mind will hold. Rey spots something emitting dark energy, though very empty in reality. It’s a helmet. Not Kylo Ren’s old one, shattered, no, it’s _older_ by far. She keeps her distance, sensing it could trigger an alert if it’s touched. She turns around, and there, Chewie’s belt, right next to the dagger. 

Heaving a sigh of relief, she reaches for it. A scream fills her ears, and Rey blinks, she’s back on Jakku, surrounded by the burning embers of a ship, smelling death and fire and ozone. “What’s all this? How did you do that?” 

Rey flinches away, hearing and recognizing Plutt’s voice, feeling like she only left Jakku yesterday, the way his words worm their way into her mind. “Nothing! I didn’t do anything!” Rey starts to say, only to look and see her younger self, wide eyed and trembling, tears streaking down her face, her bottom lip wobbly. 

The ground sinks beneath her like so much sand, and Rey starts to scream for real. “No! Stop!” 

She blinks and everything clears, the dagger falls from her hand to the table with a clatter. She swallows and her ears pop, silence weighs down on her as if she’s fallen underwater. “You know then. The truth.” Kylo Ren’s voice echoes around the room, smooth and dark, making Rey turn. He’s standing across from her, but he’s not really there. 

The bond sings between them, the Force sparking, sizzling like the very same lightning that escaped her fingertips a few short hours before. “I didn’t mean to… it was an accident.” She whispers. 

Kylo Ren tilts his head, his confusion obvious even from behind the helmet, and he steps, but not towards her, across the room, he pivots, as if preparing for her to strike at him. Rey feels no fight in her, not right now in that moment. 

“You were so afraid to lose them, you lashed out. You killed them.” Her vision blurs with tears, hotly stinging their way out of her eyes, burning down her cheeks. Rey paws at them frantically, angry now. 

“I didn’t _know_ I could! I just wanted them to stay, to come back… I forgot it even happened that way...” Kylo nods. 

“You forgot, you made yourself forget. You buried the memory so far down, in the darkness, where it was safe from ever being touched again. That’s why I pushed you in Pasaana. I wanted you to know, to remember. To embrace your destiny.”

Rey ignites her lightsaber without a thought, holding it in front of herself, angling it across her body. 

“I will _never_ make that mistake again.” Kylo’s unsteady red saber spits to life, crimson arcing over the black of his robes, and Rey breathes out. “It’s why I have to stop you, to bring you to Palpatine. He senses the darkness in you, as it in me. We share the same power, harnessing the Dark side of the Force. Together, we- we could defeat him, if you joined me.”

Rey gets the sense perhaps he’s trying to appeal to her in that same manner as he did in Snoke’s throne room. 

“No. I’m leaving.” She reaches for the dagger, shoving it into her satchel, and begins to back away from him, but Kylo pursues her, “I can’t let you do that.” He says quietly, though he sounds regretful. Rey blinks, and he’s advancing, so she lifts her saber, blocking his first blow, dancing around him, getting behind him when he dodges her next swing. 

Across the bond, their fight takes many casualties from nearby objects, a basket of flowers spill across the white floor of Kylo’s quarters, a stark contrast foreshadowing real bloodshed, the mask Rey saw earlier, sensing only danger from, explodes in a cascade of sparks. Eventually, Rey kicks him and adds a force push for good measure, closing her saber and running. Kylo does not chase after her, there’s no need, he’s got Stormtroopers to do his bidding, in his stead. Rey sighs.

She can sense that Poe and Finn and Chewie are all trapped by a battalion of troopers, so they need her help.

They’re safe now, on the Falcon, and Rey is stuck where she is, in the past, thinking about that day, over and over. 

C-3PO’s translation of the dagger yields their next destination, the Ocean Moon of Endor, better known as Kef Bir. 

Rey feels like it’s a hollow victory, as the fresh and painful memory of her parents death continues to replay, her own screams haunting her, Plutt’s shock and terror fading into resentment and annoyance. It’s this that makes her abandon Finn and Poe, taking a skiff, diving into the raging storm and braving the massive waves to get to the Death Star wreckage. 

This is _her_ mission, her life to risk, not theirs. Rey has the experience with climbing, she’s trained for this moment all her life, in a way. Her time with Luke, with Leia, it fills her with hope and remembrance, making her continue on even when she thinks her arms might fall off from exhaustion. Rey finally reaches the top, and the echoes of darkness curl around her, wind whistling through the chambers that mimic Snoke’s throne room, with a fractured throne she knows once belonged to the Emperor, to Palpatine himself. Rey can’t even begin to understand how he’s come back, but if what Kylo has said is true, channeling her darkness with him could help defeat him. She tries not to think about that, how it felt giving in to the rage, to see lightning emerge from her hand.

Rey shakes her head, and walks forward, following the traces of the dagger’s instructions, the map in her head as clear as anything, momentarily brushing away the horrifying revelations of her past. Crossing the threshold out of the chamber with windows, Rey feels something tickling her senses, not unlike when the bond flares to life between her and Kylo, but this, this is different. Sharper, tasting like _temptation_. 

The wayfinder. Rey should have known it would try and seduce her to the dark side, but oh, how wrong she is about _how._

Instead of a dip into her memory as with the dagger, or worse, a vision of the future like Luke’s lightsaber from the depths of Maz’s palace, now she sees something far more impossible, yet within reach, if Kylo’s promise is to be believed. 

Rey sees _herself_ , all dressed in black, grasping a double bladed saber, crimson to match Kylo’s, just as fractured and sizzling at the edges, there’s a ring on her hand, similar to Leia’s, but twisted, triple looped around three fingers. 

A flash of lightning, and suddenly the vision changes, with Kylo on a throne carved from dark stone, rising out of the ground, and Rey, the Sith version, enters the chamber, walking towards Kylo with a smirk unfamiliar to her face. 

As Rey watches, he gets up, and gestures for her to sit, apologizing sweetly, while watching her the whole way. 

“If I wanted you to warm my seat, I’d ask. Status report. Is the resistance destroyed?” 

Rey’s eyes widen, and she chokes out, “I would never harm my friends. This isn’t real.” 

The Rey on the throne looks right at her, and snarls. “But it could be. If you weren’t such a coward.” Rey ignites her saber and swings wildly against the vision, which vanishes, and then is replaced by an empty room. She exhales loudly. “Why.”

A loud thud echoes throughout the room, and Rey puts her saber away to slip back into the antechamber, just in time to see Kylo emerging from the opposite side of the destroyed throne. “You followed me.” She says. “How?” 

Rey watches him carefully, and then he holds up the wayfinder, having summoned it forth from the room she just left. 

“I have the other one. Join me, come with me to defeat Palpatine together.” She shakes her head. 

“I don’t understand. How are you still connected to me? I thought snoke dying meant the bond was dissolved.”

Kylo locks eyes with her, holding up the wayfinder in his fist, before crushing it to dust. 

Rey lunges at him, lighting her saber. “No! Why did you do that?” He retreats and dodges her first blow. 

“So you have to come with me. You can’t keep running from this. From your-” 

Rey yells and force pushes him out of the window, shattering glass and letting in more wind. If she has to hear Kylo say ‘her destiny’ one more time, she _might_ kill him. She chases after him, because now he’s got the only wayfinder, in his ship. Kylo finally pulls out his saber and begins to meet her, blow for blow, as waves crash and rise around them, soaking them both within seconds. Rey fights now to subdue him, to defeat him, even if that means giving into the darkness. 

She’s desperate. Remembering what she said to Luke, her own words make her stop, back down from the killing blow, and Kylo takes advantage of her distraction, getting the high ground, and kicking her arm, dislodging her grip, and Rey drops the saber. She cries out, but it’s too late, he raises his hand, a slash of red across so much blue of Kef Bir.

Before Kylo lowers his weapon to strike her, she swears she can hear someone calling her name. 

Rey looks up, tears forming, and then she sees him. Finn, held back by Jannah, in the background, too far away to help. Kylo freezes, as Rey feels the same thing, echoing between them, across the bond, but _through_ him. 

_Ben, don’t. I love you, I forgive you._ Rey blinks, the tears falling, because she _knows_ that voice. It’s Leia. 

Kylo speaks one word. “Mom-” It’s an instinct, she reaches out, grabbing his saber, and Rey stabs him, right in the chest. 

He collapses to his knees, and for a moment, Rey feels triumph, victory. It’s over. She switches the saber off, dropping it. _No. I didn’t train you for this._ The voice is quiet, soft, but very firm. Rey chokes on a sob, “Leia, please, I’m sorry-” 

The connection fades, the General’s voice vanishes from her head, and she looks down, realizing the _why_. Kylo is dying. Rey swallows thickly, and goes to the ground beside him, halfway leaning over him, and she lifts a trembling hand to press it over his chest, right beside the hole in his shirt, the angry wound of his flesh. “Be with me, be with me…” 

She whispers, pleading with the Force, begging for a second chance. 

Beneath her fingers, she _feels_ the energy passing from her to Kylo, leaching into his body, healing, binding skin to skin, repairing the damage his own saber caused at her hand. Rey lifts her eyes from the puckered scar that rapidly vanishes, smoothing into clear pale skin to Kylo’s face, where the slash she gave him so long ago also is erased. 

His dark eyes flutter, and he meets her gaze. Rey is frightened of what she sees there, so she drops her eyes to his mouth, unsure why. His lips are pink, plush, wobbling as he stutters out something that sounds like ‘thank you.’ Rey feels a shiver ripple through her body and she doesn’t pull her hand back, instead, she puts her other hand on Kylo’s tunic as well, right over his shoulder. “That’s what happens when I embrace my destiny, my dark side. It’s _wrong_ . I wanted to take your hand. _Ben Solo’s_ hand.” Rey’s voice wobbles, and more tears emerge now, as Kylo nods jerkily, teeth worrying his bottom lip. 

He starts to speak, or at least, she thinks he does, but she doesn’t let him, surging forward to close the distance between them, swept up in some kind of heady, impossible emotion that erases all reason and doubt, leaving only giddy relief.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cue the majority of the fic where i was writing through tears!!!! 
> 
> its a happy ending tho!

Kylo is too shocked to do anything more than react by kissing her right back, perhaps a split second too late, as Rey pulls away, and looks at him with her eyes wide, face drained of color. “I’m sorry… I need your wayfinder. I need to take it to the resistance.” Before she even finishes, he knows what she’s going to say. “Come with me.” Rey adds. 

Kylo shakes his head. “I can’t go back. I can’t face her.” Rey frowns adorably, and pushes off of him to stand, looming over him with an advantage she’d never have were they both standing. 

“Why not? She loves you. She misses you. You’re her  _ son _ .” Kylo sighs. “It’s impossible.” Rey sets her jaw. 

“I’m taking your ship. With or without you.” He looks up at her, feeling the ghost of a smile curving his mouth. 

“Very well. You must do what you must.” She’s still frowning, but now she summons his saber, and he eyes her warily. “You can’t have this anymore. It’s a sith weapon. Unstable. It’s evil.” Kylo barely has a second to process, before she suddenly rears back and throws it over the side of the wreckage, into the water. 

He gasps, forcing himself up to his feet, unsteady as he may be, he’s not hurt now. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Kylo sees something flicker across Rey’s face at his words, but he might have imagined it, because it’s gone as soon as he blinks. “What’s right. Come with me.” Her hand extends, an echo, recalling the throne room, Snoke’s corpse fresh in his memory. Kylo’s nostrils flare. “I told you I saw this, yet it’s not going the way I thought.” Again, Rey’s expression shifts. “Please, Ben.” He’s about to refuse, but something catches his eye, off to the side, he feels a chill running down his spine, because it’s his  _ father _ , pale, translucent and with a familiar crooked grin. Han nods to him, as if to say, Go On, Take it.

Rey is waiting. Kylo Ren doesn’t take her hand, Ben Solo does. In that moment, he feels lighter. 

  
  


It shocks him when Rey drags him off to his own ship, without so much as a word to her friends, though he spots a skiff and their ship further off on the land, she just starts the systems up, including the wayfinder, and Ben tries to keep from looking impressed. “How do you  _ know _ how to fly this? Is there something I should know about you, Rey?”

She glances at him, and smiles a little. 

“I can fly it because  _ you _ can fly it. I’ve been inside your head. We’re connected, remember?” Ben exhales slowly.

“So you really can just dip in and out whenever you like, huh?” Rey shrugs, “I’m not sure if it’s that simple.”

“Well, it’s helpful, that’s for certain.” Ben says. He doesn’t bother asking where she’s going, because he knows, seeing the same thing, bright and bold at the forefront of her mind. It’s not to Exegol, not yet. Ben wonders if he should be more nervous, or even terrified about seeing Luke again, though somehow, he’s at peace with it, because it feels necessary. 

Ahch-To looks different in the daylight, his last vivid memory of the place the night he and Rey connected by the fireside. Ben swallows thickly, glancing at her as she lands the ship with a deft hand, carefully putting them on the largest outcropping of mossy rock shielded from any potential waterfalls. “Should I wait in the ship?” He asks, almost flippantly. 

Rey looks at him with a brief expression of concern. “Why?” Ben lets himself grin. “I know  _ he’s  _ here.”

Her concern only lasts a moment, then Rey’s rolling her eyes at him. “No. You’re coming with me. Everywhere. Besides, I know he’d want to see you. Us, working together. It means I’ve proved him wrong.” Ben sighs, “Well in that case…”

Climbing the mountain steps behind Rey, Ben takes in the views, even able to appreciate the copious number of porgs that are all but infecting the island with their nests. They screech and flutter out of Rey’s way as she apologizes profusely, pushing past a cluster of them to enter a rock cave, which Ben follows her into. “Why are we here, exactly?” He asks.

Rey turns back to him, licking her lips before she speaks. For some reason, it makes something inside his chest ache.

“I have to get Leia’s saber for you. I don’t expect you to defeat Palpatine with me unarmed.” 

Ben blinks, feeling tears stinging at his eyes while shock darts through his body. “She has one too?” 

“Of course. If I’d had my way, we would have both trained you.” Luke’s voice emerges from nothingness, and Rey beams at something behind Ben. He turns, feeling wary, but seeing his uncle like this isn’t nearly as nerve wracking as he thought it would be. “I know it was Palpatine. He made me think you wanted me dead.” Ben says quietly, before Luke even says a word. “I knew there was more to it. I can’t believe he survived… how?” Luke asks, and Rey looks at Ben expectantly. 

“I wish I could tell you. It seems like he’s been using clone experimentation, body transference, old ways of the sith.”

Ben shrugs, and Luke turns to Rey, “It sounds like he’s desperate, weak, men like that will do terrible things to succeed. You two will need to be on your guard, be careful, wary of traps.” Ben coughs. “My former knights will be turned against me, I’m sure. By now, they probably know I’m not coming back to the Final Order.” Rey sighs. 

“Great. How much harder to beat are they rather than stormtroopers?” Ben looks at her, and smiles. “I’m afraid you can’t just wave your hand and bend their minds to your will so easily. We’ll have to fight them.” The smile slides off his face at the thought. “Well, you have this, so don’t be afraid.” Luke murmurs, reaching over to hand Ben an unfamiliar saber.

It’s elegant, yet understated, and when his fingers wrap around the hilt, he can instantly sense his mother’s soothing presence. Even though she isn’t there, Ben knows she’s  _ with him _ . “Thank you for all your help.” Rey is saying. 

Ben nods, feeling a prick at the corners of his eyes. Blinking rapidly, he looks up to see Luke smiling at him. 

“Go now, make your mother proud, and may the force be with you.” Ben chokes on an almost laugh. “What about you?”

Luke glances to Rey. “I’m already proud of you both, kid.” 

The flight to Exegol is mostly silent, with Rey occasionally looking over at Ben, catching him staring every time, and eventually she smiles, “Cat got your tongue?” 

He shakes his head, “Not exactly. Just taking my chance to admire the view from up close.” 

Rey looks back to the front of the ship at this, but Ben is fairly certain she’s blushing. 

“Oh. So you’re not worried about this? That we’re walking into a trap?” Ben snort laughs. “It’s a trap for sure. For jedi. Palpatine thinks he’s going to turn you, and that I’m going to help. Funny how wrong he is.” 

He plucks the blaster up from the side holster in his chair. He’s never used one, not since he was a child. 

It’s always been his father’s weapon of choice, lacking the strong force sensitivity necessary to operate a saber. 

Somehow, he thinks it’s time for him to give it a try. “You’ll go in alone.” Ben says quietly. Rey looks at him suddenly. “What? You think you’re going to use me as bait?” Ben blinks at her. 

“Well, yes. You’re the one he wants. He isn’t going to kill you. He thinks you’re his next vessel. Didn’t I say that before?”

Rey screeches, nearly deafening in their close quarters. Ben winces. He deserves that. 

“What? No you didn’t! That’s good to know. Thanks.” Crossing through the red storm nebula, they arrive to Exegol within seconds, and Rey doesn’t say another word before they land, the ship engine winding down. 

“If it helps, I’m sorry.” Ben says. She glares at him, shaking her head. He watches her the entire way as she stalks across the ice, consumed by the darkness fairly quickly, despite the lightning strikes every few seconds. Ben has an uneasy feeling about this in his gut, but he holsters his mothers saber, and carries the blaster, counting to ten before following after Rey. 

* * *

The shell that is Palpatine is far more delusional than Rey ever imagined for someone who’s seen so much history, been defeated so effectively, yet hidden out, and pulled strings in an effort to remain in control despite all the odds against him. 

“Strike me down in your anger, and you will provide me with my new form!” At her back, in the massive arena, the crowd of Palpatine’s followers roars. Rey lifts her saber, angling it just so, and she looks away from him, past the twisting machinery that powers his corpse like form. Behind Palpatine, Ben meets her eyes, in the midst of battle with his former Knights. She straightens her saber, and feels tears forming, because this is it, finally, her vision of Kylo Ren’s future come to fruition. Deep down, Rey always knew he would be the one to turn, ever since she heard his confession about his father.

“I will not kill you, but I will stop you.” She says quietly, demanding that Palpatine silence his hoard to hear her. “What?”

Rey hears the last Knight fall, and then at last, Ben comes to join her, standing at her side, he raises his blue blade. “Together, just like you wanted us to be.” She finishes. Palpatine takes in the sight of Ben’s changed appearance, the absence of both his mask and crimson saber, realizing too late what he’s up against. 

He raises his skeletal hands and his own Force lightning meets Rey’s blade first, but she grits her teeth and deflects it off somewhere, fracturing a wall, sending slivers of rock falling to the ground in the distance. Palpatine is all but shrieking. “NO! No-o-o-o, I cannot be defeated, I cannot be beaten, I will destroy you both!” Ben angles the saber down, so that Rey and his blades cross, absorbing the next blow from Palpatine’s energy, this time, it  _ reflects  _ back against him. 

The longer they stand and hold their sabers together, the more it seems to drain his power, until finally Rey starts to see his machine fracturing, so she lifts her hand, at the same time as Ben, with their combined Force push, they cause Palpatine to implode, shoving him backwards into the cliffside. The sound is like thunder cracking, and the light fades slowly, everything echoing into silence. Rey turns back to see the arena,  _ empty _ . Ben glances at her, “What’s wrong?”

“What happened to them all? Where did they go?” He sounds confused. “Where did who go?” Rey blinks. 

“Was it an illusion? A vision he  _ wanted _ me to see?” Palpatine kept talking about his Sith army, his legion to command. 

All along, they were less than ghosts. Speaking of ghosts… Rey can see something glowing now, appearing to come from the corridor which leads back out to their ship. 

“Hurry… you cannot stay here. The region is collapsing. Nebulas are very unstable.” Rey frowns, but Ben moves to stand in front of her. “Who are you? Why are you helping us, this is a Sith Planet.” The ghost has longer hair than Ben, yet his eyes are soft, familiar, like Leia’s. “I used to be one, that’s all. I’ve been a Jedi and a Sith, but now, the balance I failed to bring to the Force until my death, you both have achieved in life. You will not survive if you do not leave this place.”

Ben sounds shocked as he whispers, “Grandfather?” Rey gasps, reaching for his hand, squeezing firmly. “Thank you.” She’s not sure how to address him, but rather than leave it up to Ben, she just says, “Jedi Skywalker, we will see you again?” the ghost nods. “I am certain of it, now go.” 

They run, together, taking Ben’s ship and fleeing the unknown space, with the wayfinder entirely dead on the console. 

“We really did it. We destroyed the Sith.” Rey hears him saying, mostly to himself, she’s certain. 

“The final order is still out there. It’s not over yet.” She reminds him. 

Ben exhales shakily. “That’s true. But without the head, what good is a snake? They’ll surrender. All of them.”

Rey likes his confidence, even if she doesn’t believe it. “First, we’ve got to get to the resistance to tell them. If they don’t blast us out of the sky that is.” Ben laughs, actually laughs, and Rey finds that he’s infinitely more handsome that way.

“Somehow, I suspect Luke will give them a bit of a warning. Oh… my mother… she’ll tell them too.” 

Something curdles in Rey’s stomach. She says nothing, forcing a smile. If Ben doesn’t buy it, he also politely doesn’t question her. The closer they get to Ajan Kloss, the worse it feels. Rey wishes she could stop the ship and throw up. 

They land, just to the side of the Falcon, and her stomach clenches again. Ben reaches over to put his hand on hers, over the landing gears, as the engine dies down. “What’s wrong?” Rey can’t meet his eyes. “I’m not sure.” She lies.

Climbing out of the ship, Rey moves to walk in front of him, shielding him, in a way. Poe and Finn and Chewie are waiting for them, with everyone else behind, forming a cluster of people at the entrance to the base camp. Rey’s face crumples when Chewie lets out a wail. “It’s true. She’s gone.” She whispers. Ben freezes behind her. “What?”

His voice is so faint, trembling, and he takes her hand, as if blindly reaching for an anchor in this brand new chaos.

“The general is dead. I’m so sorry Rey.” Poe is saying, his eyes still red, as if he’s only just stopped crying himself. 

Surprisingly, no one seems all that shocked to see Ben, or perhaps he just  _ is _ so different to Kylo Ren that they know. 

Rey finds herself collapsing to the ground, only caught by Chewie and braced up by Ben too. Together, they fall into an embrace that she never wants to end. She’s shaking with the force of her sobs, and she can hear Ben’s ragged breathing. 

“When did this happen?” She manages to choke out, and Chewie tells her, not even more than a day ago. Rey is devastated. They missed her by so little, only because they had to stop Palpatine. If she hadn’t been so single minded, so selfish- “Don’t. Don’t blame yourself.” Ben says, his voice a hoarse whisper, sounding just as fractured as she feels. 

Rey looks back to him, and sees the pain in his eyes. 

“I’m sorry anyway. I wanted nothing more than to be able to bring you home to her.” Chewie grunts. 

Ben gives him a watery smile, then his dark liquid eyes find hers again. “But Rey, don’t you see? You did. I’m home.” 

She nods, and together they let go of Chewie, so Rey can go over to Poe and Finn, taking their hands, squeezing them both and smiling through her tears. “Did you miss me?” She asks, and they both answer with the loudest affirmative, Poe clearly trying to lighten the mood. Finn starts going on and on about his new friend he met on the moon while she was swimming ‘with the enemy who she managed to convert back somehow’ and then says something about Lando possibly being her dad. Rey’s eyes widen, “You found his daughter?” at the same time as Ben croaks out “Uncle  _ Lando _ is here?” 

“Of course I am, I couldn’t miss the chance to help out an old friend, and here come to find out, my little starfighter isn’t lost at all. He just needed a light to guide his way home.” Rey isn’t sure if she’ll ever stop crying at this rate, as she lets go of Finn to watch Ben stumble into Lando’s arms, clinging to the man with a fervency only comparable to his hug from Chewie. “Everyone was waiting to have the funeral until you got back, Rey, but now, I’m thinking maybe we should make it a celebration of Leia’s life. It’s what she would want.” Rose says, coming over to stand beside her, and she nods, putting her arm around the girl, letting her rest her head on Rey’s shoulder. 

“I think you’re right. Hey, did Luke let you know I was coming?” She straightens up and glances around the crowd, seeing Poe shake his head, Finn doing the same. “Some guy with a beard and an accent like yours showed up and said Luke was busy with something, but that you were coming back with Ren. But he’s not Ren anymore.” Lando is saying. Rey smiles.

“That’s right. Kylo Ren is dead. Ben Solo is the one who helped me destroy Palpatine.” She finishes. 

A whoop rises up through the crowd, and Rey meets Ben’s eye, even as he doesn’t seem to want to let go of Lando. 

His last living connection to his family. She doesn’t blame him. “Do you think the Order knows?” Rose asks.

Rey blinks. “That their commander is dead? Probably not yet. But I figured we could go enlighten them soon enough.”

This gets another cheer, and Poe grins finally, “My first act as General will be negotiating and accepting a surrender. Sounds about right.” Ben snorts. “I think if you can keep from getting shot at by Hux you’ll be lucky.” 

Rey frowns, confused. “Who?” she catches Finn’s eye and he grins. “Oh he won’t shoot us. He’s our spy.” 

This makes Ben splutter in disbelief and eventually, Rose has to tell everyone to get inside already and start planning for the celebration. It’s exactly the sort of thing Rey imagines, in the end. 

By the time the Order is taken care of, Ben tells Rey he has something to ask her. She’s wary, but she agrees to humor him. “What is it?” Ben holds out his hand, gloveless, entirely bare, palm upwards. “I wanted to know if that kiss was an accident, or something else. But I didn’t know how to bring it up. Palpatine said we were a dyad. Soulmates, in a way.”

Rey’s eyes widen, and she feels an entirely different sort of flip in her stomach. “I did kiss you, didn’t I? On purpose.”

Ben’s smile is crooked, effortlessly happy. “Would you like to do it again?” Rey takes his hand, stretching up on her tiptoes, “Yes, I think so.” That time, she doesn’t pull away, and he doesn’t stay silent either. Not for long at least.

  
  



End file.
